History of Silent Movies

Many men contributed to the development
of motion pictures, however the commercialisation of this medium is mostly
due to Thomas Edison and his assistant William K. L. Dickson. By October
1892 they produced practical movies on the same 35mm film which remains the
cinemaís standard today. Edison & Dickson developed a peepshow movie viewer
called a "Kinetoscope". Edison however had little interest in motion
pictures and little faith in their future as he believed that profits would
be maximised by showing films to one person at a time. The first set of
Kinetoscopes exhibited to a paying public opened in New York on 14th April
1894. The Kinetoscope was introduced to Sydney on 30th November 1894.

Whilst Edison was happy to reap the profits from the Kinetoscope, others
could see the immense potential of screening pictures onto a large screen
allowing numerous people to view the picture at the same time. It is
generally the Lumiere brothers of France who are credited with the first
public projection of a picture onto a large screen. This public screening
with the "Cinematographe" was held in Paris on 28th December 1895. The "Vitascope"
debuted at Koster and Bialís Music Hall in New York on 23rd April 1896.
Thomas Edison had lent his name to the Vitascope venture although the
success of the Vitascope depended heavily on the work of inventor Thomas
Armat. All devices for the screen projection of movies however were based on
breakthroughs made years earlier in Edisonís laboratories.

The first movie to be projected onto a theatre screen in Australia was at
the Melbourne Opera House on 17th August 1896. The popularity of this
screening heralded the arrival of an entertainment medium particularly
suited to Australia as a conqueror of isolation. Movies were an incredible
window to a wider world offering escape, entertainment and education.

Traditions of the "Music Hall" carried through to the cinema in the form of
"live" accompaniment to the silent films. Organists, pianists, singers,
bands or lecturers were generally billed as an added attraction to the
films. The musicians played accompaniment to the film or the lecturer
narrated the story as it unfolded on screen.

In country areas "Travelling Picture Showmen" took the movies to the outback
enabling these people to enjoy the same entertainment as their city cousins.
Silent Movies were an enormously popular and inexpensive form of
entertainment. By 1911 Sydney had over 100 permanent and temporary picture
shows employing approximately 2000 people. By 1913 in Melbourne, 65000
people were attending city and suburban cinemas every Saturday night.

Australians built up a film industry that pioneered many techniques
including the use of the close-up and indoor filming before the age of arc
lights. Prior to the outbreak of the First World War, Australia witnessed
it's few golden years of film production. Between 1911 and 1913 feature
films were being produced at the astounding rate of one a fortnight. The
film industry continued to flourish into the 1920's until the Americans
realised that Australia was a vast untapped and very lucrative market. They
moved in to capture the market by putting the movie houses under contract
exclusively to their product. The resultant distribution problems combined
with a lack of finance eventually strangled the enthusiasm of Australian
Film Producers.

At the end of the 1920's sound burst onto the silver screen and the era of
the silent movies had come to an end. Of about 250 silent feature films made
in Australia between 1906 and 1930, little more than 50 survive in whole or
in part today.

Only a handful of Theatre Organists in Australia maintain the tradition of
the composition and performance of musical scores which create the
atmosphere for some of the greatest silent movies ever screened.

Ivan Richardson is however the only organist in Australia maintaining the
tradition of the "Travelling Silent Picture Showmen", bringing the
projector, screen, movies, organ and music to you.

Experience the fun of the silent movies as youíre encouraged to "boo" the
villain, "cheer" the hero and tap your feet to the live musical
accompaniment.

Ivan says "Itís all about audience participation!"

What made the 1920's stand out in history?

The 1920's saw dramatic changes in fashion, hairstyles, music and
entertainment, all dominated by America, which had just come out of one of
the most repressive eras in its history.

Motion picture entertainment was now recognised by the general public as one
of the most powerful factors in modern life. Early in its existence, this
industry discovered that its popularity could be aided by grafting to itself
the sister art of music. During the formative years of Silent Movies, the
musical "accompaniment" had most often been provided by a pianist pounding
mechanically on a tuneless instrument, with the same shallow melodies
resounding in one's ears whether the screen showed a moment of tender
romance or a villain getting his just reward. However, all this changed
during the 1920's when major pictures began to be released with specially
prepared scores.

Large motion picture houses or "Movie Palaces" introduced the so-called
"deluxe" performances with symphony orchestra's to not only accompany the
movies but to also be included in short stage presentations as part of
all-round entertainment programs which often included singers, actors or
vaudeville acts.

In the early 1920's, Jazz dominated the musical accompaniment to movies, but
regular movie goers wanted variety in their music which provided the
opportunity for popular jazz music to be tempered by classical music both
during the accompaniment of the movie and as part of the additional
entertainment acts.

Many of the country's finest instrumentalists were now playing in the motion
picture houses and in some theatres the cost of music was a third of the
total theatre running expenses. Shrewd businessmen seeking the most
cost-effective ways of providing musical accompaniment for the movies were
the driving force behind the introduction of pipe organ accompaniment.
"Church Pipe Organs" were modified to meet the demands of the movie theatre,
starting with the addition of "tremulant". The new "Theatre Pipe Organs"
were soon capable of producing a myriad of sounds and special effects.